Project Cost and Time Management

Project Schedule

Name

Institutional Affiliation

Set-up of Microsoft Project

The project that will be set up by the entire team will be the creation of the entire project schedule that will play a pivotal role in the sake of a new product in the market. The project schedule will focus on the CRM implementation, marketing program and training. The name of the project would be the SPM Project Schedule and will be handled by two departments namely the Marketing and the Information Technology departments.

The SPM Project Schedule will be in two parts. One is the sales and training program in which the objectives of the sales training will be determined. In addition, there would be the determination of then various activities that the sales training program will entails including Identifying focus group targets, Preparing focus group objectives, Performing focus group, Performing survey, Performance analysis, Creating market research findings and Review market research findings among other tasks (Norman, Brotherton & Fried, 2008). .

The second part would involve the creation or the preparation of the work breakdown structure given the fact that it is the epitome of the entire project schedule and as such, it musts be prepared to offer direction on how the various tasks and activities in the schedule will be conducted on the time frame that the same will be completed and by who. The work breakdown structure will be the representation of the hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the two project teams. It should be noted that it is a work breakdown structure that will determine the phases of the project schedule (Haugan, 2002). The development of the sales and training program will be by an individual while the work breakdown structure will be developed by the entire project team.

Phases

There will be five crucial phases of the entire project Schedule to address the marketability and salability of the new product which forms the reason for the project scheduling (Dyché, 2001).

				new product
market research	product design	product development	marketing	project management
			design		bill of		production design	marketing strategy
	focus group	research		materials		production testing	marketing plan
	surveys		evaluation	initial prototype	production QA	marketing collateral
	research analysis	design		prototype testing	design		brochures
market research findings	documentation	production	production	advertising
			concept		dev. Sign off	plan sign off	commercials
			models
			design
			selection

Phase 1: Market research

Under phase one of the project schedules, focus will be on finding out what the customers want and how their needs can be satisfied (Robinson, 1959). The market Research phase of the project schedule will have different variables namely survey conduction, research analysis, and market research analysis.

The first variable which is conduction of the survey will aim at highlighting the focus group surveys to ascertain what the project team members deliberated on and what they agreed to do tackle in order of hierarchy. In a addition, the section will cover the various meeting and forums by the project team meant to address the various project activities such the deliberation on which member will handle the different tasks that a will be necessary to the implementation of the project.

The second variable, Research analysis will cover the various researches conducted by the project team in efforts to having an understating of the goals and missions of the project schedule and the technicalities that need to be addressed before the rolling out of the project activities of the product at hand (Robinson, 1959). The research analysis would include archiving of information from the database as well as reviewing literature sources about the product and how to better introduced into the market.

The last deliverable under Phase one is the Market research analysis. Here, the three will be an analysis of the market in terms of the scalability of the new product. The focus will be on determine the level of competition and how best to wade the competition. Issue such as pricing strategies will be addressed (Robinson, 1959).

Phase 2: Product design

The second phase of the project schedule will entails the designing of the product having known the needs of the customer are known to the marketer then they start working on the commodity the market wants. Under product design, the following activities or deliverables will be carried out

Firstly is Researching on the design product. The project team will have to do a thorough research on the design of the product, and this will include the shape, the fill of the texture, the color, size. These will ensure that the product that goes into the market is the one the target consumers are in need of and willing to buy.

The second deliverable is Design evaluation. It will look at the various designs of the product thereafter relate it to the market gap in terms of product design? The result of the step will be a culmination into a single design the suits the target market.

Finally, under the second phase of the project schedule, we will have the Design selection section where the team will have to select from the available designs the best one to be worked on so that it can be fine-tuned into a unique product before going into the market

Phase 3: Product development

Given the fact that under the third phase of the project schedule the research is already done and the marketer has made a decision on which design of the product they will match, there will be various activities the following activities will be carried out including product costing, creating of a prototype and Prototype testing

Phase 4: Marketing

Having now designed the product after a tedious production state or design state, the designer or marketer of the product has the huge task of introducing this product into market through the following activities will be carried out to complete the phase; a) Design production, b) Production testing and c) Choosing a production plan.

Phase 5: Project management-

It is the last phase of whole project scheduling process. The commodity is ready to be sold. At this last step, the following activities will have to be completed

a) Choosing a marketing strategy- the entire project team must identify the type of strategy the will be used in marketing the product.

b) Creating a marketing plan

The project team will have to identify the target market, a unique selling proposition, pricing and positioning strategy, distribution plan, and the marketing offers for the new product. In addition, there will be the situational analysis of the marketer (producer of the product) to identify the weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities, organizational competitive analysis and the financial projections of the company.

c) Data collection - The methods that will be used in collecting data about the market include the surveys and archives and interviews among different stakeholders.

d) Choosing a target market- The team will have to ensure that the target market for a new product is diverse including adolescents and adults so that the size of the market is huge. Another aspect if then target market is that the product should be affordable to the target consumers meaning that there must be pricing strategies that are well within the consenter’s reach. Additionally, the product design must a true reflection of the marketers’ or company’s image so that the consumers can keep, loyalty to other products by the same marketer.

e) Advertising of the product

The marketer will have to place advertisements on social media platforms such as Facebook pages, developing a brochure to be distributed to leading institutions and clients, becoming an active member of a number of business associations, networking with the local business community, and developing small business workshops and seminars (Kourdi, 2009).

f) Making commercial about the product

There will be short documentary of the product featuring the features, usage, durability and the functioning of the new product both in audio and video formats so that it reaches a wider market audience and consumer (Kourdi, 2009).

Milestones

The project will face challenges in its implementation just like any other project would do (Grünewälder, 2008). The following are the overall milestones in the face of the project scheduling;

1. Competition from similar providers who have been long in existence

1. Other companies or developers may seek patents or have already received pending patents on similar technology (Reuters, 2014)

1. Legality of operations by regulating and governing bodies

1. A demonstration of the limitation in the area of product innovation

1. Inadequate manufacturing and testing capabilities

Group Project

Project Resource

Computers were all in place for the IT

Printed Questionnaires for the survey

Installed writing Boards in the classroom

Screens installed in various palaces

A generator as an alternative source of energy

Designers (3)

Electrical Engineer (1)

Sales Specialists (4)

IT Guru (3)

Trainees (10)

Human Resource and Skills

Human Resource	Skills
Sales Person	avid goal setters Persistence Ability to listen, take notes and summarizes client needs Formulation of quality questions Passionate about tasks Enthusiastic even in difficult times Take responsibility of their actions Time conscious Prioritize customer satisfaction Ability to travel to various locations
IT Specialist	Project monitoring experience. Business case procedure knowledge, an IT related qualification Extensive experience of building confidence, engaging and negotiating with stakeholders of all levels Demonstrative innovative and strategic thinking Considerable and recent experience of corporate and business planning Experience of successful project management and of leading, introducing and managing major change programs Ability to make informed analysis, interpretation, comparisons and judgments upon a range of strategic and complex issues when leading and taking forward the business plan Standard keyboard use and able to use MS computer packages, skills obtained through practice and necessary to carry out the post effectively Experience related to knowledge management, Advocacy work, e-learning tools and/or online network management Creative response to opportunities in projects with integrated media and advocacy plans and actions Good understanding of messaging and public positioning General knowledge of communication and development issues

Activity guide

Day	Activity
1	classes will officially start with the introduction of the topic sales 2) the two teams will be put into one group and randomly divided into small groups and each given a responsibility
2	going to the market 2) filling of questionnaires as a survey will be taken
3	data collection on the needs of the customer and presentation of the collected data
4	choosing the product to deal in and product design
5	evaluation of the product design
6	documentation of the collected information
7	design selection
8	product development
9	product testing
10	creating a marketing strategy
11	coming up with a marketing plan
12	market research on product promotion
13	sales promotion of the product
14	advertising of the product to introduce it into the market and notify customers of its availability
15	review of the product and the marketing plans and choosing the target market for the product

Combined Project Plan

TASK TARGET COMPLETION DATE

Phase I

1. Schedule Submission 1day

2. Schedule Approval 10 days

3. Pilot Testing of Time 1 Field Survey Completed 20 days

4. Pilot Testing of Market Survey Completed 2days

Informational meetings with Out-of-State HR Directors Completed; 3dyas

Sample contact information obtained 4days

Phase II

6. Mail administration of Time 1 Field Survey 3days

7. Mail administration of Market Field Survey 2days

8. Participant reminders sent 1day

Phase III

9. Data coding and cleaning - Time 1 Field Survey 2days

10. Data coding and cleaning – Market Field Survey 2days

11. Data Analysis of Time 1 Field Survey and Market Research Survey 2days

Phase IV

12. Pilot testing of Time 2 Field Survey completed 5days

13. Write up and submit Retiree Survey findings to Project

Manager and Human Resource 1day

14. Mail administration of Time 2 Field Survey 5days

15. Archival data on employee status obtained from organizational records 5days

16. Data coding and cleaning – Time 2 Field Survey and archival data 7days

17. Data analysis of combined wave Field Surveys 2days

Phase V

18. Write up Field Survey findings and submit to Conference 5days

19. Write up executive summary; present results to organization; submit 5days

20. Summary to Project Manager 5days

Reference

Dyché, J. (2001). The CRM handbook. Harlow: Addison-Wesley.

Grünewälder, A. (2008). Implementing CRM systems: Approaches and potential problems. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH.

Haugan, G. T. (2002). Effective work breakdown structures. Vienna, Va: Management Concepts.

Kourdi, J. (2009). Business strategy: A guide to taking your business forward. London, Eng: Economist in association with Profile Books.

Norman, E. S., Brotherton, S. A., & Fried, R. T. (2008). Work breakdown structures: The foundation for project management excellence. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.

Robinson, E A. G. (1959) The Structure of Competitive Industry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.